The Last Horcrux
by VoldemortsMohawk
Summary: How do you love in a loveless world? Spies. Deceit. Darkness. Voldemort has won, but there is only one remaining horcrux left to destroy for the shattered OotP. A brilliant combination of genres, fresh characters and Voldie-hotness. Alt. futuristic world.
1. The New World

_**A/N: **__Hello ladies and gentlemen. This is the best fic you'll ever read, so you have lots to look forward to. Particularly if you're tired of the standard fanfiction plot, with the standard characters and the standard romances. This is something new, set after Harry's time…when there's still one Horcrux left to find and Voldemort has just about won. Be prepared for dark sexiness._

CHAPTER ONE: **THE NEW WORLD**

The door opened with a bang. Everyone inside had their wands ignited and pointing towards the door, but as soon as they spotted the familiar long black hair they sighed in relief. Cautiously, they lowered their wands and moved aside so there was room enough for the woman named Nathalie Jane Sterling to enter. She sat down by the table next to her sister Dawn, who wrinkled her nose from the smell.

"Sorry," mumbled Nathalie sheepishly, "I fell ... and _naturally_ right into an enormous pool of mud! It's _so_ typical, why is it always me? Why should I inherit the clumsy genes?"

Dawn didn't dignify her big sister's whining with a comment; she merely straightened her glasses and looked over at where Bill Weasley and Parvati Patil stood waiting. All eleven that were left of the Order had arrived and the meeting could finally begin.

They all gathered around the dark and very large wooden table and sat down. Once upon a time the table had been meant for more than forty people: now it was less than a dozen of them left. The floor – or rather, the ground – was made of hard earth and so was the roof, although a few strings of roots had found their way down. In the corner furthest away there was a rather large rock, pointing out towards the table and could, if necessary, function as another chair. From time to time someone would sit on it, but for now it was left alone. If worst came to worst the rock could be rolled aside by magic and provide them with an extra escape route. They never used that way normally, however, as secrecy was of utmost importance. If both exits were discovered and blocked, they would be stuck.

They had searched a long time before finding the right location for the Order to gather safely. In the end they had decided that having the meetings in an actual building was too risky. It would draw too much attention, and additionally an increasing amount of houses in London had been raided and destroyed lately.

The main entrance was protected by a Fidelius charm where Parvati was the secret keeper. To get there one would have to be in the London underground by Chancery Lane station. They would have to go far to the left, move backwards through the wall similar to the brick wall from King's Cross between platform nine and ten. Then they would have to find their way through a magical labyrinth. Unless you were extremely lucky or had it memorised, as the Order members had, it would take hours to find the right way. Also, if someone unfamiliar went through the opening a small bell on the table in the cave room would chime, alerting everyone of the intrusion.

Thankfully, there was no bell chiming at the moment and the Order members could focus on each other. However; since Parvati and Bill were the Order leaders, all eyes were mainly on them.

Parvati glanced at Bill for a moment in a silent question if she could break the news. Bill nodded slightly and shrugged as if to say he had little news anyway, and Parvati straightened and cleared her throat.

"Neville," she began hesitantly and took another deep breath. "Is dead."

Shocked silence filled the air of the small room. For at least one minute no one knew what to say. Suddenly, Melussina Draghoney, or Mellie as most people called her, let out a great sob and the silence was broken. Within seconds her brother Sebastian couldn't help but sob as well and by the looks of his tear strained face it was obvious that he had been crying in silence. Mellie grabbed his hand and squeezed it, but it gave neither of them much comfort. Neville had been one of the last major fighters they had left and without him they were all much more vulnerable.

Getting over Harry's death 3 years ago had been an extreme hard blow for them, and when Ron and Hermione had followed him to the grave less than a year later they had been devastated.

The Order of the Phoenix hadn't been able to achieve anything of importance since then.

Even though they had tried to move on from what had happened and concentrate on the future - finding the last Horcrux - Parvati could still remember the battle as clear as if it had been yesterday. Sometimes when she slept she would experience the whole thing all over again and the pictures in her head were so alive that she could have sworn it wasn't three years, but rather three hours ago since it had happened. She remembered it all; flashes of green wherever she turned, screams of pain, screams of fright, screams of anger and also of sorrow or disbelief. Desperate people she did not know clung onto her and begged her to save their loved ones only because she was a member of the Order. The battle had been fought on Hogwarts ground in front of hundreds of underage children.

Voldemort was planning on taking over the school and transforming it into a Death Eater trainee centre; forcing young children to adapt to his ideology by brainwashing them and teaching them how to become cold blooded killers and forget how to be humans. If Voldemort controlled Hogwarts it would mean that he controlled the future of the Wizarding world, and that was why Hogwarts was perhaps the most important thing to defend. The Ministry could be taken back when – or if – they managed to destroy Voldemort, but the minds of the kids and their innocence would be lost forever and then there was a chance that Voldemort and all he stood for would continue to live and terrorize the world through these young people.

This was the reason why Harry had immediately called together an Order meeting when he had received news about Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts. He had almost been out of his wits; walking around the Head Quarter in circles while talking about how this would be the most important battle in the history of wizards. Even though what he said over and over again was that they couldn't let Voldemort plant his ideology in the minds of innocent children, Parvati suspected there lay more behind than that. She hadn't been in Harry's close circle when they went to Hogwarts together, but she still knew how much he loved the school who had saved him from his terrible life at his aunt and uncle's, showed him who he truly was and introduced him to a whole new future and real friends. When she looked at the desperation in Harry's green eyes, she knew that if Hogwarts were to be taken, a part of Harry would die too. It was almost as though this was Harry and Voldemort's own private battle, not theirs.

Without much planning – there was no time – they had tried to take a portkey into Hogwarts and found that the apparation block had been removed from the grounds, that there were Death Eaters everywhere and that panicked students were desperately trying to escape. At least 50 of them had been petrified by Death Eaters when they tried to escape the Hogwarts ground in an effort to get into Hogsmeade. Some of the older ones had even tried to disapparate, failed, and ended up splinching, which caused misplaced body parts to hang around in the weirdest places. Parvati remembered the loud and panicked screams that had echoed in her ears the whole night, and the only thing she could hear above the terrorized screams was the wild thumping from her own heart that beat so wildly it almost hurt.

The Death Eaters were taken by surprise when the Order had showed up unexpectedly, which gave the Order an advantage. Even though they hadn't had any time for preparation – the meeting had been summoned in the middle of the night, and some of the members even had their pyjamas on – the two sides of the battle had been quite equal. The Order had even had the upper hand at first, perhaps mostly because of Harry's incredible courage and spirits. They had even managed to finish of Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort's most loyal and trusted servant, and several other Death Eaters. But then, when Voldemort was finally updated on the status of the fight, things started to turn around. The Death Eaters outnumbered the Order, and they were rested and prepared for fight. The only thing the Order had that the Death Eaters didn't have was Harry's unbuckling determination not to let Voldemort get in control of Hogwarts.

When they lost that spirit, there had been nothing left.

Harry and Voldemort had found each other next to the Whomping Willow where they had started to duel wildly. Since his Hogwarts years, Harry had been in constant training to prepare for the upcoming war. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks had practiced with him five times a week and it seemed like Voldemort noticed the results now. Harry was fit, Harry was fast, Harry knew how to think quickly, and Harry knew complex defensive spells. The duel had almost been equal, although it was clear that Voldemort still had an upper hand and was forcing Harry to slowly back away towards the Willow and its killer branches.

Death Eaters, Order members and even students had forgotten about their own fight and gathered in a crowd around the Willow to watch, forgetting all about the mortal danger they were in themselves. Parvati remember standing next to Bill Weasley, grasping his hand so tightly that it hurt and trying desperately not to cry or scream or simply just faint. There had been several battles before, but none as big and horrible as this one.

As Harry backed closer and closer to the Willow, still battling Voldemort, Parvati noticed that he was casting quick glances around as if to count his options. In front of him was Voldemort and behind him were the whipping branches of the Willow. To his right were at least fifteen Death Eaters and to his left with her jaws wide open were Voldemort's snake, Nagini. For a split second, Parvati had seen Harry's eyes widen behind his glasses; Nagini had been the target of the order for several months now, impossible to reach without meeting Voldemort because she was his dearest and he kept her with him at all times. Yet, there she was, curled up in a kind of ready-to-strike position with her tale beating at the ground and her tongue hissing between large venomous fangs.

Before Voldemort or anyone else had time to react, Harry had launched himself at the snake. A silver light shot out of the tip of his wand, and within a second, he had pierced the snake's head with it like a sword.

If snakes could scream, Nagini's scream would have been high and piercing, and would have caused people to crumble on the ground with their ears covered by their hands. However, snakes can't scream, and the only sound that was heard was her desperate hissing and the sounds of her tail hitting the ground as she rolled around on the ground in pain. It seemed as though she was struggling to squeeze herself out of her own skin. You could almost feel a 'wooosh' go thorough the whole crowd around the Willow as Voldemort's facial expression changed from shocked to raging mad within a second. He didn't make a sound as his snake like face turned to Harry, who still stood by the suffering snake with his wand at the ready, pointed at Voldemort, ready to resume their battle. But before any of them had time to curse the other, something else had taken control over the battle. Just as Harry, his wand still raised, took a step away from the dying snake to face Voldemort, one of the branches of the Whomping Willow finally found its target. Harry was hit hard in one of his ankles, which caused him to fall backwards closer the tree that seemed to welcome him with open arms. The raging expression in Voldemort's face changed to triumphant. For several seconds all he did was to stand quite still with his wand ready, watching as Harry, now lying on the ground, was being whipped by the deadly branches. Within seconds Harry was covered in his own blood. Every part of his bare skin that was exposed was scarlet, his glasses had been knocked of, and there was no chance that he would be able to get himself out from under the branches without help.

Parvati had always wondered if Voldemort had a method of communicating with his Death Eaters without speaking - some sort of telepathic system – because the second she, and many other of the Order members, was about to step forward to come to Harry's aid, she felt a wand pressed hard against her throat. She could almost hear her own pulse beat against the wooden stick and knew that if she tried to move or aim a curse at anyone, she would be killed. The whole of the Order were forced to stand motionlessly, watching Harry Potter being beat half to death by the tree.

It had lasted for a minute or so, until Voldemort seemed to be bored with it all, and decided to put an end to it – or to Harry, more likely.

The killing curse had hit him in the right side of his chest, and then someone had turned off all the sounds. The world had been muted since the moment that Harry's body became limp and motionless. The tree was still playing with him like a ragged doll.

Since that moment, Parvati hadn't heard a sound. Not the screams. Not the loud voices yelling curses. Not people bellowing her name or bangs as the stones of the castle were hit and fell to the ground. The Death Eaters must have let the Order members go for God knows what reason, but nevertheless the battle had been resumed. Everything moved in slow motion, and all Parvati could think of was that there was no point in fighting; that all was lost. It seemed like most of the other Order members felt the same way, because neither of them gave much resistance against the Death Eaters who had resumed the battle. The snake was dead, but what did it matter? How could anything be done now that they had lost Harry?

And the losses continued throughout the night. The bravest of the Order members, the ones that didn't allow themselves to give up hope, were all killed one by one: Remus, Kingsley, Molly and Arthur, Tonks, Fred, George, McGonagall, Hagrid and Charlie. At one point none of them knew what was happening or who was in charge of the Order. Not until Ron and Neville managed to pull themselves together and make the rest of the Order understand that they were retreating. The Order of the Phoenix had hit the wall hard, and now they were scraping up the remaining members and escaping.

It hadn't been until they got back to the head quarters that they understood how many people they had lost. Around twenty members still remained; the rest of them had been killed in the battle. None of them had been able to say a word, they had just sat around the now too big table looking at each other and letting reality sink into them, minute by minute. Was there really any point in continuing to fight back against Voldemort now?

It was hard to accept that the ones who had the best shot to end the terrible fight were lost, and for a long while there had been a split in the Order and some even joined the Death Eater ranks because they thought the Light side was doomed and would rather find a way to survive than fighting for what they believed in. In that time, when the Order was too split too fight back, Voldemort managed to take over everything, even the Ministry of Magic, and when the Order finally gathered themselves and actually did start to fight back, the numbers against them were often too big for them to win. The choice then was either to be captivated, die or retreat ... and not all of them got the chance to retreat.

Ron and Hermione had taken over the leadership of the Order, which now only consisted of members under the age of forty; most of them were in their twenties and had just joined in. They were all inexperienced and frightened. Ron and Hermione did their best to keep up the spirit of the members, but it didn't work much. And one year later when Death Eaters unexpectedly attacked and killed them too, even fewer of the members saw any point in continuing the fight. It was then, after Neville had turned down the leadership, Parvati had decided that the depression couldn't go on any longer. She convinced Bill to join her in taking over the Order. They _would_ continue the fighting.

"_There is only one Horcrux left, we __**can't**__ give up now. Are we just going to waste all of Harry's previous efforts to destroy he-who-must-not-be named? __**No, we are not**__! We are going to fight, and we are going to kill him off for good. We are going to start by finding the last Horcrux and destroying it, and then we'll take it from there. Because as long as we stick together, the Order of the Phoenix still exist, and so does hope!"_

Her speech had been completely improvised, and it didn't seem to have very much effect on people, but it was enough to keep them from giving up. Even though it was she and Bill who were the leaders now, Parvati still felt that it was more Neville who was her co-leader. As much as she wanted Bill to get more engaged she knew he had never really gotten over Fleur's death several years ago, and that his losses in the war had been the greatest, by far. He had not only lost the woman he loved, he had lost his entire family.

Slowly, slowly, the spirits of the Order had started to rise. Neville had been a major factor in this. His spirits never seemed to buckle, and whenever someone lost faith, he would pull them back up again.

Neville had been the one who had been there for everyone if they had needed someone, telling them that there was still hope and that they could still win. Somehow, even if it was just words, everything hadn't seemed as hopeless as it did now that he was gone too.

"_I can't believe it!"_ whispered Nathalie, clutching her fists in her cheeks, leaving nail marks all over the place. Dawn was very pale – even paler than usual – and sat in her seat, motionlessly. Bill kept his eyes to the floor, frozen.

"I know this is a great shock and a terrible loss for us all, but if we give up now all is lost," continued Parvati. She was nearly whispering, but still everyone heard every word. "Neville was a great hero and he used his last breath to give me the most valuable piece of information."

Bill's head snapped up. "You – you were there when he died?" In his state of shock he had trouble pronouncing the words. "What did he say?"

Parvati met his wild look affectionately.

"Yes, I found him, bleeding from the stomach in Death Alley. He had been in some kind of battle, I don't know with whom … I tried to stop the bleeding, but none of my spells worked and I couldn't!" She gasped in an attempt not to cry. "I tried, I really did…"

"We know you did," Sebastian choked out. "We know. You know healing spells better than any of us. If you couldn't do it, none of us would have been able to either."

Parvati tried to give him a smile in thanks, but failed miserably. She turned back to Bill. "Neville told me that we have been looking for the last Horcrux in the wrong place. He said that it is not in the Ministry after all, but that it is hidden somewhere in Death Alley and that he had been looking for it when Death Eaters attacked him."

Bill blinked. "Did he say something else?" Everyone in the room was paying rapt attention.

Parvati thought for a second. "He kept calling for you, Bill … I think he would rather have told you about this than me."

Bill blinked again and sucked in some air. "He was a great man. Too bad he died in vain; I still believe the Horcrux is at the Ministry. Unless Neville told you the reason for changing search ground?" He raised his eyebrows at Parvati, who blushed slightly.

"No, he didn't … he died quite quickly after I found him. He seemed very certain of it, though. I believe we ought to check it out."

"We could do that. However, we now got two clues to where the last Horcrux might be hidden and I believe it is a good idea to rule the other rumour out before we start following a new one."

For the past few weeks, they had been working on a plan of how to break into the Ministry to search for the Horcrux that supposedly was hidden there. Now they were suddenly presented with the idea of the Horcrux being a completely different place, and naturally they were quite skeptical. If Neville's theory turned out to be right, all of their efforts concerning the Ministry would have been done in vain. And Death Alley? There was bound to be at least a million hiding places there, and now they had nothing but Neville's last words as source. Although Neville's words counted a great deal, it was quite tempting to get the whole Ministry part over and done with before starting a new project.

"Maybe we should have a vote?" Suggested Oliver Wood, and the people sitting around him nodded.

"Good idea. All in favour of checking out Death Alley first raise their hands!" Parvati called out.

Oliver, Mellie, Sebastian, Elizabeth Smithson and finally Parvati herself all raised their hands. "And all in favour of sticking with the original Ministry plan raise their hands." Parvati continued.

Bill's hand shot instantly into the air, and was soon followed by Natalie's, her boyfriend Louis Jennings', Rasmus Rasshol's, , and Carl Sterling's, Nathalie and Dawn's brother.

Bill had been counting the votes, and his expression was puzzled. "Five versus five? That can't be right. There are eleven of us."

All faces turned to Dawn Sterling, who was still gazing blankly into the room in front of her.

"Dawn?" Sebastian asked, leaning over the table to tap her shoulder.

"Huh?" Dawn finally seemed to have woken up.

"Would you rather stick with the original plan of raiding the Ministry or follow Neville's clue and start searching Death Alley for the Horcrux?" Sebastian elaborated kindly.

Dawn shook her head for a second and frowned. "I think we should go to the Ministry first and take it from there."

It was settled: In a week, the Order of the Phoenix would hopefully destroy the last part of Voldemort's soul that kept them from attacking him. It didn't mean that they would be able to actually kill or destroy Voldemort in the end, but at least they would have a chance. As long as Voldemort still had a piece of his soul hidden in Helga Hufflepuff's cup there was no point in even trying.

The plan was quite simple, yet very dangerous: They would all wear their spell repellent cloaks and their concealing charms. Obviously they couldn't just march into the ministry all at once undetected. That's why they would all enter from different fireplaces at the same time, creating a diversion by casting a pack of decoy detonators invented by the deceased Weasley twins that would ensure chaos around them. The Order would then stupefy everyone within reach and quickly take the elevator down to the basement before more Ministry employees or Death Eaters (they were all the same) would show up. They would then run like hell to the Department of Mysteries, where they knew a big security project was going on. That's where they would need Bill – in case there were a lot of protective charms on it. He was known for being one of the best with spell- and cursebreakers after working for so many years at the Gringotts bank. While Bill would try to solve the mystery the rest of them would stand by all the other doors in the room and guard them with all their might.

The plan was flawed and they knew it – a suicide mission others would call it –it would not be their first dangerous mission, but they where also desperate and after going through all their options so many times this seemed like their best shot. They wanted something to happen that could change the war, one way or the other.

"But remember," Parvati warned everyone as they were about to get up to leave, "be very discrete about the order. There are spies hidden everywhere, maybe even among ourselves." She looked around the room until her eyes finally landed on Rasmus Rasshol, who looked a little nervous. "Be careful who you share information with and if in doubt, always come to me or Bill first." Parvati sniffed and fought back more tears. "But please, you guys .. don't let this make you give up hope. Please don't let this keep you from fighting for what is right and for what we believe in. As long as there is breath in the Order, You-Know-Who has not won completely. Stay together, be careful, and stay strong. Never, will anything we do matter as much as it does now."

Parvati took Bill's hand and looked over at him for comfort, but he stayed as silent and awkward as he had been ever since he had heard the news of Neville's death. After a few seconds he looked over at Parvati after all and gave her a brave little smile before he got up and left the head quarters as the first one. Sebastian, who stood closest to the door, could swear he heard Bill sigh heavily as he left, but didn't have any time to think about it. He had to say goodbye to everyone in the room before he hurried outside after Dawn, who had left right after Bill without saying goodbye to anyone but her still quite smelly sister.

Luckily for Sebastian, he spotted Dawn at the street above Chancery Lane underground station. Small drops of rain were drizzling from the morning sky; it was, ironically enough, the break of dawn; the sky was getting lighter almost by the minute and the dim cold night was beginning to fade away. Sebastian would guess that it was near 4am.

"Dawn!" he called, and caught up with her as she was about to round a corner into an alleyway where she would be able to disapparate unnoticed by the muggles around. When she heard her name, Dawn looked up at Sebastian and tried to give him a little smile, but didn't have much success. He guessed she was exhausted after the long meeting – it hadn't been the happiest they had had – and of course affected by the situation they were all in.

"Sebastian." Dawn said with polite curiosity in her voice as she stopped and eyed him through her square black glasses.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay, that's all. You seemed a little distracted at the meeting. Who can blame you, really, I was shocked when I heard about Neville too." Sebastian said, trying with all his might not to seem like he was at the verge of tears again.

"Oh!" Dawn said with obvious surprise written all over her face. "Yes. Of course I'm all right. I mean -" she continued, removing a strand of black hair that had escaped her pony tail and still looking at Sebastian with very blue eyes. "Naturally it came as a terrible shock, and it was quite an unexpected blow for the Order, but… this is war time, Sebastian. You have to walk around all the time preparing yourself that something terrible might happen. Someone you love might die, you might get attacked yourself. It's just the way things are."

She was silent for a second or two after that, and Sebastian used the moment to try and think of something wise to say, but before his head had finished constructing the sentence, Dawn suddenly jerked and looked at the small watch around her wrist. "I have to go now; I'm in a hurry, actually. But I'll see you tomorrow, Sebastian." She turned and started walking into the alleyway again, but before she could disapparate Sebastian called out after her: "Wait! Let me… let me walk you home! Like you said, it's not safe out there, and you don't live that far away, do you?" he took a step closer to where she now stood half hidden in the shadows of the alleyway.

"No thank you, Sebastian, I don't really have time for that. Thanks for asking, though." The answer came back, and before Sebastian had time to even blink, Dawn had disapparated without another word. He stood there for a while in the drizzling rain and watched the spot where she had disappeared from until his clothes were moist and he had started shivering. Then he finally jerked himself out of the trance, took a quick look over his shoulder to check for possible muggles, and apparated back to his own apartment where his cat Feather had taken the best chair and was purring loudly, fast asleep.

In her calmness and happiness, Sebastian couldn't have envied the cat more.

**A/N: **_Chapter two coming up shortly! Make sure to add this story to your favourites or alerts so you don't miss it._


	2. Sebastian's Trials

**A/N: Wow, thanks for all the reviews! That means a lot; we didn't expect such a high response so soon. That's really encouraging so we decided to post more asap. Here's the next chapter with the promised romance…hope you like it :D**

CHAPTER TWO:** SEBASTIAN'S TRIALS**

The morning after the Order meeting, Sebastian Draghoney found himself in his own flat in the west side of muggle London. He preferred to live there because there were still many muggles in London in spite of the high level of "criminality". That way, he would be one of many muggles, and chances were if someone were to kill muggles in his neighbourhood, he would hear the screams and have time to escape. He did, however, have to be careful with his use of magic and use as little of it as possible when he was at home. Magic was easy to trace…

This morning, Sebastian was walking around in his rabbit slippers and trying to make himself a cup of coffee in a vain attempt to fill his stomach with something before heading off to work; he hadn't had time to go grocery shopping yesterday. Or last week. In fact, he couldn't really remember the last time he had been inside of a supermarket and it was rather worrying. While he was pouring the steamy coffee into an oversized mug, Sebastian took a quick glance outside the window. His eyes fell on a young pair holding hands and walking down the street as though they had all the time in the world. Sebastian stared in disbelief until he was woken up by the fact that his feet were wet and warm. Very warm, in fact! Yelping, Sebastian jumped backwards and realized he hadn't stopped pouring his coffee, soaking his table as well as his feet with steaming liquid. It was painful, but somehow it seemed like a trivial matter. Without starting to dry it of right away, he figured it would stop hurting eventually and looked back down at the street below. The couple disappeared behind a corner.

It was a very dangerous time to love; to let down your guard and allow yourself to show any other emotion than coldness or indifference.

But Sebastian Draghoney couldn't help it.

He loved his sister Mellie, who was all the family he had left. He loved his cat Feather. He loved the Order of the Phoenix and the pride he had by not having surrendered or gone into hiding. He loved the big window frame in his apartment where he could sit for hours and pretend he lived in another time, another place – it was his one form for escapism. He loved to eat yoghurt with banana in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep.

And he secretly loved his coworker, Dawn Sterling.

It was a different kind of love than he had ever experienced before. Nothing she did could ever be wrong. However snappy or pissed she was at the world (or him), he could never be truly annoyed by it, because in his eyes she was simply perfect. End of story.

The problem was that Sebastian had never admitted to his feelings to her. The main reason for this was that:

He was a coward.

It was a highly inappropriate time to love.

He never found the right moment.

She didn't really seem to like him that much.

Or did she? Sometimes she would make him wonder by giving mixed signals, which was very confusing to poor Sebastian who had never really understood girls. Or women. Dawn was definitely a woman.

Suddenly the doorbell rang, making Sebastian jump for the second time this morning. His slippers made funny squashy noises as he hurried to fetch his wand before yelling: "Who's there?"

The answer came back: "It's the mailman! I've got a parcel for you to sign."

Sebastian had never talked to the mailman before, but this morning he was desperate for someone who could shed some light in his pathetic Dawn situation. Therefore, he yanked open the door and pulled the unsuspecting mailman inside, slamming the door behind him with his foot. Ignoring the fact that the mailman had an expression comparable to a scared marmot and that Sebastian himself didn't look particularly sane – his brown curly hair was standing up in every direction, and he was still wearing his PJ's - Sebastian pushed him down into the nearest chair and looked at him with a most serious expression. "You know a thing or two about girls, don't you?"

The mailman was in his mid fifties, red-faced, about head shorter than Sebastian, and seemed to have eaten one or two muffins too many in his life. But even though the situation he found himself in was absurd, the mailman seemed to understand that Sebastian wasn't going to harm him; that he was simply a man in need. Therefore he managed to calm himself down, and in the five seconds it had taken him to do so Sebastian had pushed a large mug of steamy coffee into his hands in an attempt to be a little bit more hospitable to his guest.

"I love a girl who doesn't love me back. Only I don't know! But I never find the time or courage to ask her about it, and I don't know what to do because sometimes she really confuses me." He exclaimed before sighing heavily. "Like, sometimes she would smile at me in this particular way, but only if she thinks I'm not looking. If she sees that I saw her, she'll scowl and narrow her eyes at me as though I've done something wrong. But then, a few minutes later, she can surprise me with an extra pack of lunch that she brought. I usually forget to bring something see, and we don't really get the chance to buy anything... Other days she is so into her own thoughts that she doesn't seem to notice me at all. " Sebastian paused. The mailman, who still hadn't uttered a single word since entering the apartment, blinked a few times and placed his mug of coffee on the table. Luckily for Sebastian, the mailman was a man of the kind that couldn't get angry at the people he pitied, and Sebastian seemed desperately in need of consult. Therefore, after thinking about it for another couple of seconds, he decided to share some of his wisdom concerning girls with the strange man.

"Well." He said at last. His voice was much too deep and masculine to be coming from such a man - in comparison, his voice made Sebastian's sound like he was in mid puberty. But neither of them had any interest in thinking about the other's voice at the moment; The mailman had stopped talking again and seemed to be searching his head for the right words, while Sebastian sat in the chair opposite of him leaning forward so as to be sure he didn't miss a single word.

"Ask her," he said simply. "That's the only way you'll ever know. Girls are complicated creatures, there's no use trying to understand them."

Sebastian huffed. "But I've – I've tried, but it's like she has this power over me, I don't function normally around her. It's impossible."

"It's the only way," the mailman confirmed wisely.

Sebastian sighed and pouted. "Is there _really _no other way?" he asked with little hope in his voice.

"Well, you can always just go straight ahead and kiss her. It works with some girls, but it's never any way of knowing how she'll respond. But if it goes wrong and she turns you down, at least you'll have kissed her, right?" The man winked.

Sebastian could see the logic in this statement. The thought of kissing Dawn made his body tickle all the way down to his toes.

The mailman suddenly got to his feet and held the parcel out for Sebastian to sign. "If you don't mind…I have to get on with my round now. Good luck to you." He said and walked towards the door once Sebastian had scribbled down his fake muggle name. "Wait!" Sebastian hurried after him and exclaimed: "What's your name? If this goes well, I'll want to know the name of my future best man!"

The mailman laughed as he turned his head towards Sebastian and smiled back. "Oscar." He said, pointing his finger at a nametag pinned to the chest of his uniform. He then tilted his mailman's hat slightly and walked away, leaving Sebastian alone in the hallway feeling like an idiot.

Nathalie Sterling was on her way to where her sister Dawn and her four year younger boyfriend Louis Jennings worked: the secret bookshop _Wither and Wipe. _The bookshop was placed between Diagon and Death Alley – an alley that had been added in the last seven years with surprisingly rapid development of buildings and new shops. Only Death Eaters roamed freely there, but it had quickly become the centre of the wizarding trade. Because it was so close to where the Death Eater used to gather it made it a perfect place for them to keep the bookshop. It was simply too close to be suspicious and for most part they were left alone.

They still took many precautions, though. Those who worked there (always at least three at the same time) had to wear spell repellent cloaks and emergency portkeys at all times. Also, the customers could only enter one by one. Getting customers was tricky. They couldn't risk Death Eaters discovering them or their illegal books. Most books written after Voldemort's first reign of terror talked badly of him and the Death Eaters, and all such books had been banned a long time ago.

Nathalie pulled her cloak a little tighter around her thin frame, shivering just a little. She didn't like walking alone, it gave her the creeps.

Other than the fact that she was thinner, taller and didn't wear glasses, Nathalie looked very much like her sister Dawn. They both had the same straight black hair, small nose and blue eyes. Furthermore, Nathalie's sense of fashion was a bit more up to date, while Dawn usually just put on whatever was nearest, and didn't care much for shopping. Nathalie liked bright colours while Dawn preferred dark earth tones such as black, brown and green. Underneath her standard black cloak, Nathalie's outfit was very colourful indeed.

With a disillusionment charm covering her, she crept as silently as she could down the tiny road that wasn't even wide enough for a single car to drive through. If she had learned one thing throughout the years it was that she could never be too careful. Pausing just enough to make sure she was at the right spot, she looked around. Seeing or hearing no one, she walked exactly five more steps forwards before suddenly stepping sideways – right through the wall.

The wall had the same function as the brick wall between platform nine and ten at the King Cross station had used to have. Once inside, she turned and waited about a minute with her wand facing the wall she had come from, waiting patiently to see if anyone followed her. This was standard procedure for everyone who wished to come to the shop.

When no one came, Natalie breathed a sigh of relief and for the first time in what felt like an eternity, she felt relatively safe.

Rounding another corner, she reached the entrance to the shop. She knocked at the door, first three times, then a pause, then two times, another pause, and then finally one more final knock.

The door swung open just enough for one person to enter. Natalie stepped through, and the very second she was inside the door closed behind her and bolted shut. Three faces were looking at her from various places around the room. There was Sebastian, Dawn and Louis.

She greeted them all, answered a standard safety question about a childhood memory from Dawn, before throwing her arms around Louis and planting a wet kiss on his lips. Her boyfriend was quite good looking, just taller than her and with short black hair and dark eyes. He always managed to look a bit tanned, even when it was mid-winter and the sun hadn't been out for weeks. Louis grinned against her face and held her tight for a few seconds before letting her go. He was careful about not showing too much affection in public.

"Nice to see you again," he said warmly, playing briefly with a strand of her dark hair and then stroking her shoulder.

"Nice to see you too," she said breathlessly. She could see Sebastian rolling his eyes at Dawn, but it didn't bother her. She was just happy to be there.

Whenever she finished work early and found a suitable excuse, Nathalie used to visit the bookshop because she never found anything better to do with the spare time. This happened rather often because she usually skipped her lunch break; she rarely ate much anyway. Usually she just grabbed a coffee.

"I haven't eaten ANYTHING today!" she complained loudly to the three others while stroking Louis' neck without much discretion. Dawn raised an eyebrow while Louis made a childish voice and said: "Poor baby!", then whispered into Nathalie's ear suggestively: "Eat _me!_" just loud enough for her to hear it, he thought. However, he noted that both Dawn and Sebastian had suddenly disappeared to other ends of the shop to perform cleaning charms on already clean bookshelves. Nathalie gasped "_Louis! _"

"Sorry," he grinned, still with a mischievous glint in his eyes that suggested that he was not sorry at all.

While the two lovebirds continued their dirty flirting, Sebastian was looking through The Daily Prophet. It had become a quite useless paper because it was now run by Death Eaters, but it could still give them a hint about what to expect from Voldemort and his crew. After skimming quickly through the headlines, Sebastian called the other three over to him. Wordlessly, he stepped aside so they could read the front page where the headline was as follows: "_ARTICROX NORREL ORDERS MASS EXECUTIONS OF MUGGLES WITHIN DAYS. To read more about this long awaited event, turn to page 6."_

Louis quickly grabbed the paper, turned to the given page and read out loud:

"The Daily Prophet is proud to announce that the promised muggle destruction will happen within the end of the week. Using the poisonous gas of the much-discussed Prompo potion, the Minister of Magic intends to massacre a larger amount of muggles than before. Dropping the potion over a particular area, the gas will spread fast and exterminate all life within a radius of six miles. If you, for some reason should intend to wander in the streets of Muggle London in near future, be sure to wear an invisible bubble head charm."

"How awful!" Nathalie burst out, throwing herself into Louis' arms and causing Sebastian to drop the paper.

"Honestly Nathalie, don't be such a drama queen. We've all expected something like this to happen ever since Norrel took Office." Dawn bent over to pick the paper up before giving her sister a resigned look. Sebastian looked at Dawn with wide eyes as she bent over, his eyes automatically gluing to the part of Dawn's skin that got exposed as her top slid further up on her back. Blinking, he forced himself out of his trance and went over to a bookshelf to pick out a book about poisonous potions as a distraction. He had already marked the page where the effects of the Prompo gas were listed. "It says here that inhaling even a small amount of the gas will cause immediate discomfort, fever and hallucinations. The fever will then increase while the gas will turn into acid inside of the victim's lungs and etch into them from the inside out until the lungs collapse. Ouch!" he finished, putting down the book and looking around the room. "I'll be sure to wear that bubble head charm from now on!"

"Or avoid being in London at all – making wizards use that bubble head charm is a clever way to expose who is muggle and who is not. It can blow your cover. That Articrox Norrel is a tough bastard..." Louis' commented, stroking Nathalie's shaking back comfortingly.

"Yeah I know…but it won't happen today or tomorrow. Just soon. And that Norrel is probably just a tool in You-Know-Who's bigger plan anyway." Sebastian added, and received another of Dawn's impossible-to-decipher looks. He gave her a proud smile, and Nathalie supposed he was very satisfied with himself for being so clever; it was no big secret that Sebastian had a huge crush on her sister … he was lousy at hiding his feelings. It seemed to Nathalie that everyone knew about it – except for Dawn, perhaps. She made a note in her head like many times before to tell Dawn about it later if she got the right opportunity.

"Well," Louis looked at the clock. Even if it was still fifteen minutes till closing time, they might as well close the shop now. They hardly had any costumers anyway, as most people preferred to order their books by mail. He turned to Sebastian. "Do we have any more orders to send before closing time, or should we just call it a day now?" he asked hopefully. Sebastian quickly went into the office and skimmed through the order list. "Naah, it's good. Nothing here that can't wait until tomorrow." He smiled at his co worker.

Nathalie, who had been through this before, turned to leave the shop, knowing that they could not close until it was free of costumers. She stopped by a shelf next to the door and grabbed a random magazine, so as to have had an excuse to visit in the first place. She dropped two coins onto the desk.

"See you in a bit!" she called to her boyfriend as she left.

As soon as Nathalie was gone, Louis went over to her sister, who had already started to count today's profit. "Dawnie, do you need help?" he said, spreading his arms helpfully. Dawn gave him a smart look. "I can manage. This is way too complicated for your primitive brain to handle anyway."

Louis pretended to be hugely offended. "Hey!" He was about to make up another comment when Sebastian came over to the desk with the coins that Nathalie had left by the entrance. "Don't forget these!" he smiled at Dawn before sending a sour glance in Louis' direction. "Thanks," said Dawn simply without noticing anything. Sebastian took a few seconds to think of a believable excuse to be alone with Dawn, before turning to Louis. "You really shouldn't leave Nathalie out on the street all by herself at this hour. Just go ahead, Dawn and I can close the shop alone. Right, Dawn?"

"Sure," Dawn said absent-mindedly without removing her gaze from the coins in front of her. She finished counting and put the money into a separate envelope before rising from her seat and leaving the room to put them in the safe. When she came back, Louis had finally taken the hint and left, leaving Dawn and Sebastian alone in the shop.

They finished the closing routines without many words. Dawn seemed to be lost in her own thoughts while Sebastian tried to figure out how he was going to make his move. Every time he figured out something smart to say, his words failed him and all that came out in the end were weird spluttering sounds. A few times Dawn would look at him and ask: "Is everything alright, Sebastian?"

"Yeah, yeah!" Sebastian would answer and try to keep the noises in, but they were back within two minutes, even louder than before.

Before Sebastian had time to think he found himself out on the street, finishing the last protective spells along with Dawn to secure the shop overnight.

"Er, uhm," he began. Dawn looked at him, a bit impatiently.

"Yes?"

"I, er," he moved a step closer to her. Dawn's eyes, slightly magnified behind her glasses, flickered from side to side uncertainly before they finally landed on Sebastian.

"I was just wondering if you..." as he was about to move another step closer, Dawn took a step back. Sebastian's heart beat madly, and he was surprised that it didn't show. Or maybe it did? Suddenly, without thinking, words blurted out.

"Do you want to come to dinner at my place tonight?" he regretted his words immediately after saying them. If she said yes, it meant that he would actually have to cook something, and that was certainly _not_ the way to impress a girl. The last time Sebastian had tried to make French toast, he had burned them. Luckily, before Dawn had time to answer, Sebastian had thought of an alternative excuse.

"My sister is coming too, and I thought of asking Nathalie and Louis. Maybe we can still catch them if we hurry!" his voice was way too high to sound normal.

"Well, that sounds nice, I suppose." Dawn finally said, smiling slightly. Sebastian's heart skipped a beat, and before he had time to act cool, a huge grin had spread all over his face.

"Great! Awesome! Fantastic! See you tonight at.. say eight o clock?"

"Eight o clock." Dawn repeated and nodded. Sebastian wondered if this was the right moment to give her a goodbye-see-you-later-hug, but didn't seem to have much muscle control at the moment. His heart was the only part of his body that wasn't paralyzed; his facial expression had frozen in the same stupid grin he had taken on when she had said yes. An awkward silence followed, neither of them seemed to know what to say or do next.

At last, Dawn managed to break free of the silence. "Maybe you should run and catch Louis and Nathalie before they disapparate somewhere?" she suggested.

"Yes!" Sebastian nearly yelled before yanking out of his statue like position, taking off down the street without saying so much as a goodbye to Dawn. He was too relieved over how the situation had developed, yet incredibly nervous of how the night would turn out. He was glad he had thought of asking Mellie; she was amazing in the kitchen. He could ask her to make the dinner for him.

**A/N: He he he, poor Sebastian ;) Not easy to be so in love, is it? Hope you as a reader can relate to his feelings, no matter how the romance worked out for you. It's only fun when it works of course, but even when it doesn't…well. It would certainly have made life more exciting for a while!**


	3. Wall of Stone

**A/N: Good evening everybody! We're still really thankful for all the feedback you guys have given us. It just makes us want to write more, faster! Now: get ready for chapter three! **

CHAPTER THREE: **WALL OF STONE**

Melussina Draghoney had just finished her shift at the apothecary and was about to leave. Elizabeth Smithson, her co-worker and mem:r of the Order, was left in the shop along with a few other pharmacists. She was the only one Mellie ever really talked to at work as they actually had something in common other than their choice of career. In addition to Sebastian and Dawn, Elizabeth had become one of Mellie's closest friends. Therefore, Mellie didn't just storm out of the apothecary the second her shift was over; she took time to chat with Elizabeth for a while about everything and nothing. They were always very cautious about discussing the Order or Order related things, so their conversations were usually about anything else; music, books, superficial politics such as hippogriff breeding and similar issues, and their own personal lives.

As soon as she had entered her apartment, Mellie noticed that there were two owls, both of them unfamiliar to her, sitting on her window still. After removing her shoes and coat, Mellie hurried over to them, released them both of their deliveries and watched them fly off into the darkening sky.

The first letter turned out to be from her brother. The handwriting was extremely shaky, even for Sebastian's normal standards. The letter was very short.

_Mellie! _

_I'm having Dawn, Louis and Nathalie over for dinner, and need your help! Come over as soon as you get this message!_

_Seb_

Mellie grinned and pictured the stress her brother must be in at the moment, concerning his non-existing cooking skills and his crush on Dawn. They were not a good mix. Smiling, she picked up the second letter, and while putting her shoes and coat back on to leave for Sebastian's apartment, she opened it:

_Melussina –_

_I do not want to put too many details into a letter, but something urgent has come up about you-know-what. Meet me tomorrow at noon by the entrance to Death Alley. Do not mention this to ANYONE, not even members of the Order_

_B.W_

As soon as Mellie had read the note, a spark appeared in the middle of the paper and the next thing she knew the letter had caught fire. Within seconds all that was left in her hand were ashes.

Mellie's stomach clenched with worry. Why was _she_ trusted over the rest of the Order members? Perhaps this was a test of her loyalty? She stood still for a few minutes, tapping her fingernails on the doorframe, but no matter how she twisted and turned the question, she could not find a logical answer. Unless something had happened to someone she was close to...

Not wanting to finish that thought, she shivered and quickly walked out the door, casting a password protected locking charm over her shoulder to her door.

She felt unease at the thought of not being able to tell anyone about it, but it was the safest thing to do. Facts had been pointing towards a spy in their Order for some time now. Mellie frowned and felt cold. Bill didn't think _she _was the spy, did he?

The street was silent – unnaturally so for being Muggle London. Mellie didn't like that at all, she usually felt safer in crowds. A small mist had settled over the asphalted street, giving her surroundings a mysterious appearance.

Fortunately she didn't live far from her brother. After only ten minutes of walk she was knocking on his door.

"Who is it?" she heard Sebastian squeak from inside the house.

"Mell-" she started, but was quickly interrupted when the door burst open and she was yanked inside by a rather frantic Sebastian.

"Twenty minutes!" he gasped. "She – er, they – will be here in twenty minutes! What took you so long? Is it even possible to make a dinner for-" Sebastian stopped for a second to count on his fingers how many were coming. "_-_FIVE people in TWENTY minutes?"

"Whoa, calm down, Bro," laughed Mellie, trying to grasp his upper arms with her hands to calm him down. "It'll be all right. What have you got?"

"Got?" Sebastian looked sincerely confused.

"Of ingredients!" Mellie elaborated.

"Oh, right. Follow me,"

Mellie followed her brother into the kitchen, where he found a couple of bags with groceries that he had yet to put away.

"I've just been to the store," he explained, while he pulled out an iceberg salad and three tomatoes. Mellie went to the other bag and found a couple of packages with chicken fillets and another package of pasta, as well as a bright pink box.

"Right," Mellie started, "why have you bought tampons?"

"Pardon?"

Mellie held up the pink packet with raised eyebrows.

Sebastian's face turned bright red. "I – er, er…isn't that soap? No?" Mellie sighed dramatically and giggled from Sebastian's sheepish expression.

"You manage the strangest of things. Anyway… the pasta only needs twelve minutes when it's in the water. We should start with the chicken fillets first as they take longer ... although, if we cut them in strips they'll cook faster," she thought aloud. She told Sebastian to prepare water for the pasta and start chopping the vegetables. She hoped he would be careful with the kitchen knife so he didn't lose a finger. That was the last thing they needed; not just because it would ruin Sebastian's dinner party, but also because they had to avoid using magic due to the detectors the Death Eaters had placed around in Muggle London. Nor could they visit a hospital. "Be careful," she reminded him, although she was sure he was. He could be incredibly clumsy with a lot of things, but dealing with dangerous spells and tools he was surprisingly concentrated and accurate.

Exactly twenty minutes later, when the pasta had been taken out from the water and mixed with sauce and the chicken, the doorbell rang, announcing that the guests had arrived.

The dinner turned out much better than Sebastian had dared to hope. Dawn had been quite cheerful towards him and that made him more confident and less clumsy. Louis had entertained them most of the evening with amusing stories, which caused Nathalie to burst out in laughter fits, spraying Mellie with red wine several times. Sebastian had even managed to dig out some ice cream from the bottom of his freezer that surprisingly enough turned out to be quite good.

"Why have we never done this before?" asked Nathalie when they all sat in the living room, nibbling on the rest of the wine at the end of the night. The sky outside was black now, and all the illumination in the room was candles that Mellie had found in a drawer Sebastian didn't even know he had. Nathalie continued: "I mean: all we ever do is sit at home and think about the difficult and dangerous times we're in. Why don't we just loosen up and live a little?"

"I agree with you," Louis added, raising his glass solemnly. "Cheers to Sebastian for this great idea!"

Sebastian couldn't help but blushing when they all raised their glasses to him. After all, the dinner party was just a result of bad nerves and additional quick thinking when he chickened out of yet another one of his attempts to tell Dawn how he felt. He did, however, not say this to his guests; he simply smiled at them and raised his own glass, blushing even more as his eyes caught Dawn's. She gave him a small smile while Louis yelled out "CHEERS!" yet another time.

Not long after that, Nathalie checked her wristwatch and proclaimed that it was WAY past bedtime, before she looked quite indiscrete at Louis and giggled. "I think we better get going."

Louis took a few seconds to send everyone else around the table apologetic looks, and then followed Nathalie out into the hallway to find their cloaks. Dawn got up just moments later. "I better get going too. It's quite late. But thank you for a lovely dinner, Sebastian," her eyes looked amused as she turned to face Mellie. "or, as I suspect, you're the one to be thanked, Mellie. For the food at least." Mellie grinned back, getting to her feet as well. "Well, that's what you have sisters for. I will leave the dishes for Sebastian to take though. I'm not _that_ of a good sister." The two women laughed together and walked out into the hallway, closely followed by a suddenly tense Sebastian. He nearly tripped over Nathalie's chair as he hurried to catch up with them.

"I'll walk you out!" he said quickly, grabbing Dawn's cloak from the hanger and trying clumsily to help her put it on, before discovering that it was now inside out. He was glad she had her face turned the other way as he blushed madly. To his irritation he felt the colour in his face increase as he noticed that Louis and Nathalie were huddled together in the corner of the room, giggling and looking at him with knowing looks on their faces.

The night air seemed to have a cooling effect on Sebastian's face. He felt his body relax a little and managed to lower his tense shoulders. Without really having thought of it, Sebastian realized that he was in luck. Mellie, Nathalie and Louis would turn right when they were out on the street, while Dawn would turn left. It would therefore be natural for Sebastian to walk her to the alleyway where she could disapparate safely. Thrilled with his good fortune, he turned and jumped down the stairs in front of everyone, taking two steps at the time and holding the door open with a small bow. Dawn was the last to walk out the door, so Sebastian thought it was safe to smell her hair as she passed him without anyone noticing. He then followed her and cleared his throat to get people's attention. "Since Dawn will be walking alone, I think it's best if I walk with her. Anything can happen these days, even in the muggle areas of London with that Prompo threat."

He saw Mellie nodding in approval, while Louis and Nathalie exchanged amused looks once more. Sebastian didn't really have any additional feelings to spare; his pulse was rising again, as it did every time he tried to work up his courage to make a move on Dawn. Every attempt had failed in the past, either because he himself chickened out (which was what happened most often) or because someone or something interrupted him (and he usually felt a huge relief). This time, however, he had decided that he would do it. His thoughts wandered to the conversation with Oscar the mailman earlier that day, and he knew the muggle had been right. It was best to just get it over and done with.

Sebastian suddenly realized that everyone had finished saying goodbye and that Dawn was already on her way down the street without him. Letting out a small gasp that he hoped no one registered, he hurried after her and tried to swallow the high-pitched, nervous voice that so often escaped from his mouth when he was talking to her. How much he would have given to have the deep and manly voice of Oscar the mailman right now.

"Dawn, wait up!" he managed to choke out after a while. It sounded like he was suffering from a bad cold, but at least it was better than sounding like a twelve year old, Sebastian thought to himself as he caught up with her.

"It's sad that it has come to this," he said, just to have something to talk about while trying to figure out the words to say later. When Dawn didn't answer, he continued. "I mean, that you can't be safe anywhere anymore." She made a small sound, like a low "mhm", but didn't seem to register what he was saying. He guessed that she was in her – like he used to call it – silent mood, where her eyes would be all unfocused, as if she was looking at something through a wall, or, if she was looking straight at you, right into your thoughts. Sebastian really hoped this was not the case.

At last they had reached the dark alleyway into which Dawn would soon walk and disapparate. She seemed to realize this herself, because a few seconds after they had stopped walking, her eyes focused again and she looked up at him politely. "Well, thanks Sebastian, it's been a great evening. See you tomorrow." She said without much enthusiasm in her voice. He supposed she was tired. As Dawn turned her cloaked back to him and started to walk away, Sebastian realized that he was just about to miss out on another chance to tell her how he felt. Thinking about it, he didn't know if he could bare another failed attempt. He knew perfectly well that his crush on her had gone way out of control, and it was time to be a man and start doing something about it. He was suddenly convinced they were meant to be together – why else would he have spent so many years of his life loving her? When they finally became a couple, he would start calling her Honey-plum-bum! Yes!

"Dawn, wait!" he said loudly, hurrying after her into the alleyway. Dawn stopped and turned, looking confused and a bit uncomfortable. She glanced up at his face, but wouldn't look him straight in the eyes. "What is it, Sebastian?" she said with a weak voice. "I really need to get home, it's late, and you know how I get when I'm tired. It's impossible to even be in the same room with me!"

Sebastian smiled nervously, stopping in front of her, but leaving a small space between them. His blood felt like it was full of carbonic acid that bubbled and tickled inside his body. What if she turned him down? Of course she would turn him down. She was much too special to ever want to be with a guy like him. Sebastian felt his hands shaking. A small voice in the back of his head started to whisper. _But what about the peculiar smiles? What about the times when her cheeks turn slightly red, like a small blush? What about the times she brings you coffee because she thinks you look tired? What about all the small signs you have collected over the years?_

Sebastian swallowed. Dawn was standing in front of him, her face showed a mixture of curiosity and annoyance.

"I, er-" he started, taking a small step towards her. She looked away from his face and stared at his neck instead. Her back was pressed against the brick wall behind her and she seemed to realise that she was now unable to step backwards. "I've been meaning to tell you –" Sebastian tried to continue, but as he took another small step closer, he felt his voice slip away from him. If he opened his mouth now, nothing but a squeak would come out, he was sure of it. Why was it so hard?

But Sebastian couldn't chicken out now. He was too close. He had too many failed attempts behind him and the words of Oscar the mailman were still echoing in his head.

_Well, you can always just go straight ahead and kiss her. It works with some girls, but it's never any way of knowing how she'll respond. But if it goes wrong and she turns you down, at least you'll have kissed her, right?_

Dawn did not look at him. In fact, she seemed to be looking anywhere but at him. Sebastian was much too close; there were barely an inch between them now. Sebastian couldn't hear anything anymore. His heart was pounding madly in his ears. Dawn was looking from side to side, until she seemed to understand that there was no other option left but to look him in the eyes. As her blue gaze rested on his brown one, at last, Sebastian heard his own voice in his head and felt his lips move as he spoke.

"You're wonderful," he whispered, and - at last - he finally leaned forward and kissed Dawn Sterling.

Fireworks exploded in his chest and the carbonic acid bubbles in his veins were dancing. For a second it felt as if the world slid right into place and became wonderful, safe, warm and beautiful again. That is, until he felt Dawns small hands on his chest, pushing him away from her.

It was like putting out a match. His fireworks died within a split second, and it felt as if his whole soul was sinking into a pool of mud. Amazingly enough, his ability to see was still intact. His eyes found Dawns face, but his mind was unable to interpret her expression. It could have been anger, sadness, nervousness or irritation, he would never know. All he heard was her voice when she spoke silently, and rather frantically.

"Sebastian, don't. You can't. I – I'm sorry, but I – we can't. No. It's a bad idea." He had never seen her this insecure, and had definitely never heard her stutter like she did now, almost lost for words. But at that moment it couldn't have mattered less to Sebastian. All that mattered was the imprint of her hands on his chest, as if they had sunk deep into his skin and left a permanent mark there. She didn't want him. It was over.

"I have to go." She whispered panicky, and before he had time to react she had disapparated right in front of him.

Sebastian was staring at the wall and wondering if he too would turn into stone if he stood there long enough. Oscar the mailman was a damn fool.

**A/N: Love can hurt like hell. At least I think Sebastian would agree with that right now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. We're working on the next one, so be sure to keep an eye out for it. We still love reviews, both positive and critical ones, so don't be shy!**

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	4. Dawn of the Day

**A/N: Hello, people! Here we are again, and we bring gifts: chapter four is finished! Get yourself a nice warm cup of coffee or tea before you start reading, it makes it all the more pleasant. Hope you enjoy!**

CHAPTER FOUR: **DAWN OF THE DAY**

_God. Damned. Sebastian._

Dawn was not sleeping; she was drinking coffee in her apartment.

Her blue eyes were looking out of the window as if it was Sunday morning and she was having a late and relaxing breakfast. However, it was not Sunday morning – it was 4 am and she had to get to work in three and a half hours. Yet she was drinking black coffee from a mug that was twice the size of a regular coffee mug, and she had been doing it ever since she got home three hours before. She had no ambitions of going to bed that night. After all, how could she? Her mind was a mess and she hated Sebastian for being responsible. What on earth did he think he was doing, kissing her as if there was no war, as if there was no danger, as if their lives consisted of butterflies and rainbows? Sebastian was _not_ that stupid, he was quite intelligent, but that had been an unbelievably stupid thing to do.

Dawn was not looking for a relationship. She knew that due to the present world situation the best thing to do was to keep your emotions under control. The clever thing to do was to keep them locked up inside until it was all over. Furthermore, Dawn was not a relationship person. She didn't like opening up to someone unless she _really_ knew them, and maybe not even then. Mellie was her oldest friend, but Dawn still didn't share everything with her, she wanted to keep some things to herself. A boyfriend meant letting someone invade your personal space and Dawn had never liked the thought of that. The only time she had been in love she had ruined it because of her inability to share her feelings, but Dawn didn't care. She never did. Seemingly.

She took another sip of coffee and straightened her glasses.

She had befriended Mellie at Hogwarts. They were eleven years old and had both been placed in Ravenclaw house. Even though their friendship had suffered a little during a small thing called puberty, they were still close now more than ten years after they first met. She had met Sebastian the same year. He was two years older and in Gryffindor, had a lot of friends and was really likeable. But Dawn didn't like Sebastian because he was older than her and simply too… _smiling_. Even at eleven she had thought it couldn't possibly be healthy to spend as much time of your life smiling as Sebastian did. Therefore she had been a little brat towards him whenever she was forced to be in the same room as him. It had worked for several years until Dawn had to face the ultimate truth and admit that Sebastian was simply too nice to dislike. And when she had finally realised that, she had allowed him to be nice to her at last.

Dawn blinked. "Stupid, _stupid!"_

Sebastian wasn't nice or funny or sweet, he was stupid and foolish.

Except he wasn't. Sebastian was everything Dawn was not, and it annoyed her. Even though she pretended to think otherwise, she really envied him the ability to not pack down his emotions, even under the circumstances they were living in now. She had never dared to take the risk that he did, she thought it was way easier to pretend emotions didn't exist. And this little fact showed that Sebastian was not only nicer, sweeter and more loveable than Dawn, he was also much braver. She hated it. Looking at all of his abilities made Dawn think less of herself, and that was another reason for why she didn't want to get involved with Sebastian; it hurt her ego.

In her fifth – and his seventh – year, they had really started to become friends. Dawn spent the summer at Mellie's, and the three of them had a wonderful time together, fooling around as though dangers and death had never existed. When thinking back, Dawn always felt that that summer was the happiest time of her life. But the summer had ended and Dawn and Mellie went back to their sixth year of Hogwarts without Sebastian. They hadn't seen much of each other after that. Dawn and Mellie had finished school and Dawn had spent a few years travelling, working at random places and reading. She hadn't been in contact with anyone, not even Mellie or her family (even though she had received numerous of letters from Nathalie). When Dawn had come back and started to get in touch with the Order and working in _Wither and Wipe_, she was twenty years old. She was welcomed heartedly back by her old friends and for the first half year she didn't seem to have any problems. Until she started to suspect that Sebastian might have a crush on her. There were looks and small brushes of touch that suggested that he wanted to be more than just co workers and fellow Order members, and Dawn freaked out. Not in a way that people noticed, but she knew that she did _not_ want to get involved in stupid love affairs right in the middle of the most important war in wizard history.

_Love equals distraction. Distraction equals chaos. Chaos equals d__eath._

Had here been a different time and situation altogether, Dawn might have given it a try. After all (there was no denying it), Sebastian was the sweetest guy you could ever meet. But at this time, Dawn couldn't deal with the difficulties of trying to work out a relationship; that was difficult enough for her even without the worries of the war weighing on her shoulders. Sebastian would have to be kept at bay until his crush passed. Everything else would be much too complicated and dangerous for her.

And so Dawn began to snap at him more often, avoid working with him alone, and flirt with Louis, who was two years younger than her and a real Casanova. She even encouraged Nathalie to visit _Wither and Wipe_ more often with the hope in mind that Sebastian would fall in love with her instead – after all, she was taller than Dawn, more smiling and with more beautiful features. The project turned out to be a complete disaster. Instead of Sebastian, Louis fell in love with Nathalie and after a few weeks they were inseparable. Louis even joined the Order, inspired by his girlfriend. He had considered it dangerous enough to work in a bookshop selling banned books before he met Nathalie. Dawn often wondered if Sebastian and Nathalie could have become a couple had Louis not been there. Nothing seemed to work out the way she wanted it to. But she had at least thought Sebastian would never dare to make any move on her if he didn't get any encouragement. She couldn't have been more wrong.

And _why_ did he have to do it _that way?_ That made it much more difficult for her to reject him in a nice way. He could have done anything! Bought her flowers for instance, or asked her out on a date. But a sudden kiss? That was pure idiocy. And now she had to face him and he had to face her, in front of Louis. Things were bound to be awkward, and Louis was a real teaser. It was impossible to call in sick too, because all three of them had to be present when they opened the shop, for obvious security reasons. There was simply no way of avoiding meeting Sebastian today.

"Oh God."

Dawn sighed and looked at the watch on the table. She would have time for one more cup of coffee before she had to get to work.

"Good morning, Dawnie!" Louis sang as she joined him and a very silent Sebastian in front of the brick wall that led to _Wither and Wipe_ an hour later. She was wearing a dark grey skirt, a green sweater and a very old brown shoulder bag which she loved. With a quick glance over at Sebastian, she spotted that he was wearing the same clothes he had worn yesterday. Dawn didn't bother to answer Louis, who seemed to be incredibly cheerful this morning. "You look a little bit tired. You're not hung over from last night, are you? He he he he!" he babbled while the three of them began the standard morning procedures, removing the security spells they had put on the shop the day before, and spells to check if there were someone or something inside of the shop that shouldn't be there. As soon as they entered the shop Sebastian mumbled something to Louis and disappeared into the office. Dawn went into the back room to see if there were any books she could put out in the shelves. When she came back with a stable of books, Louis had sat down by the counter, whistling loudly.

"Sebastian said he'd deal with the orders. And that's a _lot_. He's a really great guy, that's what he is!" he sang joyfully to Dawn, who passed by him mumbling a low. "Mhm."

Louis got up and followed her. "And also, that leaves more quality time for you and me, Dawnie!"

Even though he was in a serious relationship with Nathalie, Louis hadn't stopped flirting with Dawn. Just innocently, of course, and never in front of Nathalie, but it seemed to be a sort of instinct he had. Dawn sometimes played along, usually only in front of Sebastian, for old time's sake. But this day she was not in the mood and knew that if she was pissed off she would be extremely snappy, even according to her standards. The effect of the coffee she had been drinking all night seemed to be disappearing fast now.

"Nice." She answered coldly as she placed the books in the shelf and turned around to get some more in the back room. Louis was standing in her way.

"You know, Dawnie. I always thought it would be you and me who would get married and have lots of babies. Before I met Nathalie, of course. Big mistake of you to bring her along here so much, just imagine what we could have had together!" he lifted a dark eyebrow at her and grinned boyishly. "Nice." Dawn mumbled again, trying to get past him. This was exactly the kind of talk she couldn't handle today and not the kind of talk she wanted Sebastian to listen to either. When passing the office door Dawn had seen that it was ajar, and she knew that Sebastian could hear every word they said.

"But you know," Louis continued, still blocking her way and not taking the hint at all. "I guess it turned out for the best, didn't it? I'm with Nathalie, and you'll find a nice bloke, and we'll all be one _big happy family."_ He raised his arms and gave Dawn a big, overdramatized hug. Dawn felt the last drop fall into her already full goblet of irritation. She pushed Louis away from her like she had pushed Sebastian hours before, only not as gentle. This time she laid all her strength into the push, and although she was really tiny compared to him, Louis had to struggle to keep on his feet.

"What the..?" he exclaimed confusedly, looking at Dawn as though she had suddenly grown an extra nose.

"Oh my GOD, Louis, will you _stop it!_ You're acting like a stupid little fifteen-year-old! What is the matter with you, are you still drunk from last night? Because I have seen you joke around before, but this time I get the impression that you're not just _pretending_ to be a stupid idiot, you really are one."

Louis gaped.

"Now if you don't have anything interesting to say, I suggest that you get back to work because I have things to do and I don't have time for your bone-headed jokes. I'm really tired, and trust me; you do _not_ want to get me pissed off today. Alright?"

She hissed dangerously at Louis before hurrying past him and straight into the back room. When she got back this time, Louis was gone and she heard his voice talking silently to Sebastian in the office: "What the hell is wrong with Dawn today? If you ask me, it's a major PMS fit, but you never know."

Dawn didn't hear Sebastian answer. Seconds later, Louis came back out from the office looking even more confused than before. After considering his options he simply sat down behind the counter and shut up.

Dawn felt a little better after her small outburst, and as she went over to the shelf by the entrance, she jumped when she heard the sudden familiar knocking on the door: Three knocks. Two knocks. One knock. Mellie entered the shop, looking confused – a look that was very unfamiliar to spot on Mellie's face.

"Hello, Mellie." Dawn tried to smile, but she expected it didn't look much like one, rather like someone were stepping on her toes. Smiling on command was not one of her best abilities.

"Hey, Dawn. Everything all right?" Mellie said, while looking over Dawn's shoulder as if to check if there was anyone nearby.

"Sure. Just a bit tired, that's all. What about you? You seem a little distracted, is something on your mind?" Dawn asked politely, truly surprised by Mellie's strange behaviour. For a moment, Mellie looked like she was about to say something but then changed her mind. "No! I'm great! It was such a lovely night last night, I just wanted to stop by and say hello before I go to work!" she smiled at Dawn, and it was obvious that she was much more skilful at forced smiles. It almost looked natural, but Dawn, having known Mellie for all those years, could still spot that everything was not the way it should be.

"Sebastian is in the office if you wanted to see him." Dawn explained. She was much more talented in the art of keeping an earnest face and didn't think Mellie noticed anything when Dawn mentioned Sebastian's name.

"Oh, no, that's all right, Dawn. I see him much too often anyway. I have to go now, I'm late. Have a great day!" Mellie kept on smiling and there was a forced light tone in her voice. Something was definitely going on with Mellie today.

"Bye!" Mellie called out as she turned and left the shop just as quickly as she had come.

_Strange__,_ Dawn thought to herself as she turned back to the bookshelf and continued to place books in them. After finishing, she looked down at her watch. It was exactly fifteen minutes since opening time. This was going to be a long day.

After leaving _Wither and Wipe_, Mellie wrapped her dark robe tightly around herself to hide her identity and looked both ways to check that no one was watching her, before strolling off towards the pharmacy where she worked. Her head was so full of thoughts that going to work seemed too much of a chore. Elizabeth, who usually worked together with Mellie, had asked for the day off for some personal reason, so Mellie would be alone in the pharmacy for the whole day. Elizabeth had told Mellie that if she didn't want to work alone, they could close the shop for the day, but Mellie had worked alone on previous occasions, and had always taken the necessary precautions. She was worried, but confident enough in her own abilities to defend herself, or at least see the danger before it descended.

Mellie opened the door, removed all the defensive spells that had been placed upon the entrance to secure the pharmacy at night. Then she waited until a small sponge-looking mat appeared in front of her, waiting to read her fingerprint and wand to double check her identity. The door opened after about five seconds; she had passed the identity test. The reason why there was a double check was to prevent people from using polyjuice potion to ambush them in the disguise of another person. The wand was a second precaution.

The door of the pharmacy was of the same kind which were used in common muggle police stations; you could only look through it from one side, which was the inside of the shop. The knowledge that they could see who it was before someone opened the door made them feel safer, and it would also reveal people trying to sneak in under an invisible cloak.

Finally inside, Mellie took off her cloak and hung it over the nearest chair. Then she moved across the room, found a box on the storage behind the counter and started to unwrap it and place the content onto the shelves in the shop. She worked slowly so she would have something to do.

This was how she spent her hours until lunch time approached. Sometimes Mellie would ask herself why she bothered to work at a pharmacy with almost no costumers when there was a war going on. She didn't really have a good answer to the question, but she knew it was important to take the time to try to keep a normal society going, not just for the Death Eaters.

Mellie left the shop right before noon after having attached the _closed_-sign to the door. She headed for the entrance to Death Alley to meet Bill.

Little did she know that this would be the last day the pharmacy would be open.

After what seemed like eight endless hours, Dawn finally found herself alone on the street outside of _Wither and Wipe_. It had been the most awkward day of her life. Not that anyone had been able to notice the awkwardness she felt herself; she had hidden it well behind tiredness and irritation. She seemed to have achieved a whole new kind of respect from Louis who had ended up tiptoeing around her all day, trying to speak with Sebastian who had spent the day in the office. The poor guy hadn't uttered a word to her all day and she had only made eye contact with him once - which had been an accident - and they had both looked away after a second. It seemed like both of them had been trying their best to avoid it.

Dawn sighed. This was exactly what she had been trying to evade. She was still pissed at Sebastian for kissing her, although it had proved to be quite difficult when he was in the state he had been in today; it was the first time ever that Dawn had seen Sebastian all closed up and silent. It was the kind of behaviour she used to have herself, but when Sebastian did it, it was just sad.

_Whatever, Sebastian needs to learn how to control his feelings,_ Dawn thought to herself, but knew the thoughts meant nothing. She knew it was impossible. Even if it was dangerous and stupid after her opinion, she knew that Sebastian wouldn't be Sebastian if he couldn't wear his heart on his sleeve.

Dawn usually loved being alone. She loved sitting in her sofa in the darkness with a candle burning and a hot cup of cocoa, or with a good book. But tonight she couldn't think of anything she wanted less than to go alone back to her apartment. Even if she was tired as hell, she couldn't bear the thought of going home to bed. It was quite a dilemma, actually, because no place was safe anymore. Walking alone outside, you risked either being blasted to pieces by Death Eaters or by paranoid civilians. Either way, she refused to go home and allow her thoughts to catch up with her again.

The choice had fallen on The Leaky Cauldron. The bar had changed a lot during the past five years. It used to be a cheerful meeting place for friends, now the atmosphere was much more pressured, laughter was a rare thing to hear, and in fact no one really talked. But the good thing was that people were usually left alone there. It was a place where both Death Eaters and civilians could go, surprisingly enough. Dawn entered the room and took a seat at the bar next to a cloaked man who was sitting dead still in on his stool.

"Yes?" the bartender got over to Dawn and looked impatiently at her, as if the place was packed with costumers (which it was not, there were barely ten other people in there, and no one were at the bar waiting to order). Dawn looked back. "Firewhiskey." She said simply and chucked a few coins onto the counter, welcoming the glass with outstretched hands seconds later. After the first sip of whiskey, Dawn felt warmer. After the second one she felt happier. During the third one, the man next to her turned around to face her, and both the warmth and the happiness seemed to drain from her body within seconds. The man was Sebastian.

Dawn swallowed the whiskey fast and managed not to choke on any of it.

"Hey." Sebastian said silently. It was strange seeing him so calm and relaxed. If circumstances had been normal, he would have jumped from his seat and offered to help her with anything, said something funny or asked her how she was doing. But now Sebastian hardly moved at all, and his face was like a mask.

"Hey." Dawn replied, just as silently. They both sat for a few minutes without saying anything to each other, lost in their own thoughts. Dawn wondered if this would be a good chance to explain to Sebastian why she had acted the way she had, but decided not to. The less Sebastian knew about her thoughts right now, the better, she concluded.

"You know what Dawn, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking rationally, and of course I never should have kissed you last night. It was a stupid thing to do." Sebastian's voice was determined and serious. He was looking her straight in the eyes without blinking and Dawn even found it hard to read his expression. However, she did notice that the colour of his eyes were the exact same shade of brown as his hair.

"Yeah." She replied quietly. "It was."

Another few minutes of silence followed.

"Did you know I was in love with you?" Sebastian asked after a while, the same solemn tone in his voice.

"Yeah." She finally answered, deciding that the truth would be the best thing to stick to for now. There were few other sounds in the room, just the occasional clunks of glasses against wood and sometimes a cough or a yawn. The bartender was standing with his back to them, apparently wiping glasses, but Dawn noticed that he had been wiping the same glass ever since she and Sebastian had begun to talk. Sebastian sighed and took a sip of his glass, which looked like it was filled with firewhiskey as well.

"I don't know for how long, though. I first started to suspect it about half a year after I started working at the bookshop." Suddenly it felt almost natural to sit here and talk about this with Sebastian. It was rather strange, after the incredible awkwardness that had been dominating the most of their day at work. Sebastian shrugged.

"I don't really know for how long." He began. "I suppose since sixth grade or something. But not to such high extent as it's been the past years. I was seeing someone for a year or so when you were travelling abroad, but when you returned my feelings for you came back as well. I realised my feelings for her were not strong enough to beat that. It wasn't fair to her." He finally concluded, and at last a faint smile was visible on his face. "And I was naïve enough to think that you had no idea."

Dawn smiled at him, taking her glass between both of her hands. In the mean time, the bartender seemed to have realised that it was a bit suspicious to be wiping the same glass for ten minutes because he had put it down and started to rearrange the bottles standing on a shelf instead.

"At least you'll be able to move on now, right? Focus on the war instead. That's something, isn't it?" Dawn suggested. Sebastian seemed to have loosened up a little bit. He ran his fingers through his hair and smiled slightly at Dawn again.

"I guess so. Although it was much easier to focus when I had someone to fight for."

A stone fell down into Dawn's stomach. She did not want to be responsible for anything like that. Well, of course she wasn't responsible, but she wanted nothing to do with Sebastian's reasons to fight. She hadn't done anything to deserve this.

"There's always something to fight for." She finally said seriously.

"Yeah, but I think I'll have a tough job finding something as much worth fighting for at the moment." Sebastian gave Dawn a wry smile that she didn't think she had ever seen before.

Dawn Sterling had always been a very rational woman. She always thought long and hard about everything before she acted. She never let her feelings get carried away and she had never done anything in her life that she had regretted afterwards. It might have been the firewhiskey, it might have been her exhaustion, and there were many other reasons she could use later that would be perfect for explaining Dawn's sudden behaviour.

Inspired by the moment for the first time in her life, and without really realizing what she was doing, Dawn leant forward and kissed Sebastian softly on the lips. Was it meant to be just a small friendly kiss? Maybe she had _really _intended to just kiss him on the cheek but miscalculated?

Within a split second, Sebastian had responded. His silent, calm and serious appearance was gone and he was suddenly himself again, pulling her closer and kissing her back eagerly, passionately. Dawn could feel his hands stroking her back and playing with her hair, and she felt her own hands sliding up Sebastian's neck and through his soft, thick curls. She felt a weird jolt in her stomach she had never felt before. He was holding her so tight, so comforting, as though he never wanted to let her go. One of her hands slid from Sebastian's hair, found his cheek and stroked it gently, even though it felt a little bit like rough sandpaper.

After God-knows-how-long, they finally broke apart, both breathing heavily. Dawn looked around the room quickly and her gaze fell on the bartender, who was standing right in front of them, staring at them with apple-sized eyes. A second after he realized she was looking at him, he yanked himself out of the staring position and left, mumbling something about cleaning the bathroom.

Dawn looked at Sebastian, and all of her sense was screaming at the top of their lungs that what she had just done was a bad, bad, _bad_ idea. Sebastian was smiling.

"I didn't expect that!" he laughed, and the sparks in his eyes were like those of a little child on Christmas Day.

"I didn't either." Dawn answered truthfully while straightening her glasses and trying to sort out the confused feeling that had suddenly taken over. She would have ran out of the bar immediately had it not been for the fact that the small jolt in her stomach had grown to become a bucket of butterflies and the fact that she didn't really want to. What on earth was she doing? The _DANGER_ sign inside of her head was blinking red, trying desperately to warn her that this was not smart, it was risky. But before the clever voices had time to come up with their arguments, Sebastian had kissed her again and all reason in Dawn's head was paralyzed.

Maybe The Leaky Cauldron was not such a dull place after all.

**A/N: It's February: The month of love, you know. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and as always: reviews are more than welcome. **


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